Plot Summary: (Season 1) Academy City is a highly developed place in terms of technology. It is said to be 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. Eighty percent of its 2.3 million residents are students. The focus of studies here is directed towards esper powers. Misaka Mikoto, one of the top level espers in town, shares a room with Kuroko Shirai, another high level esper who is a member of Judgement, a law enforcing agency composed of students. Both attend to Tokiwadai, a private school reserved for the high-leveled and the rich. Kuroko's partner at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, is a low level esper who studies at Sakugawa middle school. Her best friend and classmate there is Ruiko Saten, a level zero (no esper powers). Together the four encounter several adventures in the exciting scientific town.

(Season 2) Mikoto Misaka, one of the strongest Level 5 espers in Academy City, gave her DNA map to a certain doctor when she was young, believing that it may be used for greater good. Unfortunately for her, it ended up being used to create countless clones of herself; forming the Misaka network, in order to create the strongest esper by sacrificing these clones whom she considers as her own sisters.
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This is a Mikoto Misaka a.k.a. Biri biri spinoff series of whatever that series was with that nun (not implying the series was terrible, but that fell in the trap of being overly convoluted in its explanations). In terms of story chronology, pretty much the events that happens here falls parallel to what happened in the original series added with moments of Touma crossing paths with Mikoto.

Episode 1 is pretty much a solid introduction episode featuring new characters Kazari Uiharu (the one with the flowers on her head) and Ruiko Saten who thought Mikoto was stuck-up. spoiler[Of course once Kuroko set up a get-together with the other girls (with her ulterior motive obviously doing......"things" towards Mikoto ), Ruiko's prejudgments went away. And then there was a bank robbery in which both Mikoto and Kuroko went utterly, TOTAL badass on them and captured the robbers! ]

The OP sequence appeared at the end of the episode though I kind of expected more flashy editing and/or action scenes at the latter parts. On the plus side, it definitely looks like J.C. Staff put up slick production values on this, so if the original manga readers say what they mean, we're about to experience some really fun and flashy moments.

[EDIT: Thread title adjusted to reflect official English translation and eventual addition of sequel series. A link to the page where the second series discussion begins will be added at the appropriate time. - Key]

Last edited by darkchibi07 on Sat Apr 27, 2013 1:18 am; edited 1 time in total

One problem I had with Index was that it didn't focus much on helping the audience understand their world by showing stuff related to the psychic powers. By the looks of it first episode, railgun looks more set on showing us more about the powers as the first episode we even got to see them ranking the powers.

I wonder how much character development we get from a spin off, the new character look intersting enough, even though they both appeared in the OPs of Index. I wonder how this goes.

I noticed that at the end of the episode, the OP showed a scene that is of a different angle of a scene in To Aru Majutsu no Index's first OP.

So should I watch the show that allowed for Railgun to be spun off? This show seems to be pretty interesting and I'd hate to miss out on some things (Like if you watched Umineko without watching Higurashi first)

Probably a good idea, Niomo. At least the first arc and the first Accelerator arc (episodes 10-14, I believe), as those are the ones where Misaka is introduced and gets most of her screen time, respectively.

Based on the first episode alone, I don't think having seen the original is actually necessary. This one lays enough of a foundation to make almost complete sense of the setting, so all you'd really be missing so far is a couple of cameos.

I did not expect much from this one, but was quite impressed by the first episode. I may have to revise my thinking on what 2-3 series I'll be following this season.

Thanks to you both. I will probably go for another episode and then see how i feel.

Right now, though, I feel kinda lost. spoiler[I don't understand how all these people have psychic powers, besides that the city "researches/teaches" about them. In addition, I have no idea what these "levels" are, but it looks like its a 0-5 system of some kind. In addition, what is up with the girl in the SWAT uniform who sounded all nervous when they put the 3 thugs in the truck at the end. She was also in the ED with some older woman. ]

Not sure if my wonderings can be solved with watching the previous series, but if it can I'll check it out.

Unless I'm forgetting something from the original series, the SWAT members are new characters. The bus tour scenes also explains (sort of) the whole business about psychic powers; there are a lot of people running around with them, and Academy City is heavily focused on them. Why people have the powers is never explained in the original series, either; that's just a point to accept.

And how the level thing works should be obvious from this episode: level 0 means you have no abilities, level 1 is minimal, and so forth up to level 5s, who are top-of-the-heap. (The original series has a plotline about the efforts to make a hypothetical level 6 psychic, but that doesn't figure in here.) That's never explained any more than that in the original series, either.

So should I watch the show that allowed for Railgun to be spun off? This show seems to be pretty interesting and I'd hate to miss out on some things (Like if you watched Umineko without watching Higurashi first)

It's always better to start at the beginning and watch the original before the sequels/spinoffs of things.

Actualy I belive there was a theory brought up by the teacher in Index about the powers. She theorised something about each person being able to alter reality with their own realities rules, or something like that.

Probably a good idea to take a look at the original, at least up to the Accelerator arc, though I am not sure when Railgun is set. Index does have her as a love interest.

Yeah, the purple-haired woman showed up briefly as one of the other teachers at Tohma's school, but I don't recall much more than that. It wasn't a very large role.
The nervous girl reminded me of the character the last arc was based around, spoiler[the one who wasn't really human,] but I don't think it was the same person (haven't actually checked).

I disagree there. I'm enjoying Umineko just as much as anyone who's seen Higurashi, if not more.

Well, I mean that you'll miss out on things that those who have seen the other show will recognize instantly. Like how spoiler[Bernkastel and Lambadelta's characters are based on/are characters from Higurashi.]

It's not that you won't enjoy the show, but you'll miss out on the subtle nods that the show makes to the previous season. For example: I have no idea who Touma is. Now if he shows up in the background, or is doing some psychic stuff, but never gets named, i kinda lose some of the wow factor.

Anime's purposes are to entertain the audience, completely understanding it doesn't exactly mean a better experience while watching. Besides, what's there to explain about witches. And I've had enough of Higurashi talk anyway, I'm changing my mind about watching it.
Plus there was no need to reply to my quote, that was just my opinion, clearly. It's not like I was saying everyone is the same.
So let's keep it within the topic's title and not start talking about Higurashi even here.

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